Tracy Morgan slams Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri
Comedian/actor Tracy Morgan during an appearance on MTV (AP Photo by Evan Agostini)
Chris Kattan during an appearance in Los Angeles (AP Photo by Branimir Kvartuc))
Former “Saturday Night Live” star Tracy Morgan spent 10 years on the popular sketch comedy show, but he didn’t always get along with his cast mates.
In his new autobiographytitled “I Am The New Black,” Morgan took a stab at his former SNL cast mates Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan.
In an excerpt from the book’s audio version, Morgan said “I can remember being on “Saturday Night Live” and feeling like i was at the bottom of the totem pole. I can remember when people like Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri probably looked down upon on me. I can remember especially those two treating me like I was the invisible guy. Now, look where they at now? Cheri Oteri, she can’t even get arrested. Where’s Chris Kattan now? They never going to host “Saturday Night Live.”
“That’s what happened to me over there. They never treated me well. There were people that treated me beautifully like Will Ferrell and Colin Quinn and Molly Shannon–I love them. But Cheri Oteri and Chris Kattan I never cared for them either (explicative).”
Morgan’s book will be in stores Oct. 20.
Dick Cheney’s daughter criticizes Obama
Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is doing something that I enjoy doing myself. She’s exercising her right to free speech and her right to criticize politicians (which I often do myself).
Liz Cheney recently created an organization titled Keep America Safe. The purpose of the organization is to oppose President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.
Liz made the following statement on the organization’s Web site, “We have watched with concern and dismay as the Obama administration has cut defense spending, wavered on the war in Afghanistan, and launched investigations into Americans serving on the front lines of the war on terror, while at the same time expanding legal protections for the terrorists that plot to attack this country. These policies, along with President Obama’s abandonment of America’s allies and attempts to appease our adversaries are weakening the nation.”
Again, I’m a huge supporter of free speech. I just wish Liz would also use the Web site to mention how her father (Dick Cheney) was responsible for leading us into the Iraq War by falsely telling Americans that Saddaam Hussein was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.
If anything, leading us into a war for false reasons weakened our nation more than anything President Obama has done.
President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize
President Barack Obama speaking at Cairo University in Egypt. (AP Photo by Ben Curtis)
President Barack Obama was selected as a Nobel Peach Prize winner on Friday. The full Associated Press story is posted below via NewsOK.
ASSOCIATED PRESS BY KARL RITTER AND MATT MOORE
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.
Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama woke up to the news a little before 6 a.m. EDT. The White House had no immediate comment on the announcement, which took the administration by surprise.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided not to inform Obama before the announcement because it didn’t want to wake him up, committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said.
“Waking up a president in the middle of the night, this isn’t really something you do,” Jagland said.
The Nobel Committee lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama’s calls for peace and cooperation but recognized initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.
“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” Jagland said.
Obama’s election and foreign policy moves caused a dramatic improvement in the image of the U.S. around the world. A 25-nation poll of 27,000 people released in July by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found double-digit boosts to the percentage of people viewing the U.S. favorably in countries around the world. That indicator had plunged across the world under President George W. Bush.
Still, the U.S. remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Congress has yet to pass a law reducing carbon emissions and there has been little significant reduction in global nuclear stockpiles since Obama took office.
“So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act,” said former Polish President Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace laureate.
“This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let’s see if he perseveres. Let’s give him time to act,” Walesa said.
The award appeared to be a slap at Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama’s predecessor for his largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The Nobel committee praised Obama’s creation of “a new climate in international politics” and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage.
“You have to remember that the world has been in a pretty dangerous phase,” Jagland said. “And anybody who can contribute to getting the world out of this situation deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.”
Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, the peace prize is given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Like the Parliament, the committee has a leftist slant, with three members elected by left-of-center parties. Jagland said the decision to honor Obama was unanimous.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who won the prize in 1984, said Obama’s award shows great things are expected from him in coming years.
“It’s an award coming near the beginning of the first term of office of a relatively young president that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our world a safer place for all,” Tutu said. “It is an award that speaks to the promise of President Obama’s message of hope.”
Until seconds before the award, speculation had focused on a wide variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman’s rights activist, among others. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year’s prize, though it was not immediately apparent who nominated Obama.
“The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it’s given to someone … who has the power to contribute to peace,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.
Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the award: President Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919.
Wilson received the prize for his role in founding the League of Nations, the hopeful but ultimately failed precursor to the contemporary United Nations.
The Nobel committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a “kick in the leg” to the Bush administration’s hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war.
Five years later, the committee honored Bush’s adversary in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, for his campaign to raise awareness about global warming.
Obama was to meet with his top advisers on the Afghan war on Friday to consider a request by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan as the U.S war there enters its ninth year.
Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan earlier this year and has continued the use of unmanned drones for attacks on militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a strategy devised by the Bush administration. The attacks often kill or injure civilians living in the area.
In July talks in Moscow, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed that their negotiators would work out a new limit on delivery vehicles for nuclear warheads of between 500 and 1,100. They also agreed that warhead limits would be reduced from the current range of 1,700-2,200 to as low as 1,500. The United States now as about 2,200 such warheads, compared to about 2,800 for the Russians.
But there has been no word on whether either side has started to act on the reductions.
Former Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said Obama has already provided outstanding leadership in the effort to prevent nuclear proliferation.
“In less than a year in office, he has transformed the way we look at ourselves and the world we live in and rekindled hope for a world at peace with itself,” ElBaradei said. “He has shown an unshakeable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts.”
Obama also has attempted to restart stalled talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, but just a day after Obama hosted the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York, Israeli officials boasted that they had fended off U.S. pressure to halt settlement construction. Moderate Palestinians said they felt undermined by Obama’s failure to back up his demand for a freeze.
Nominators for the prize include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomed the award on behalf of its founder Nelson Mandela, who shared the 1993 Peace Prize with then-South African President F.W. DeKlerk for their efforts at ending years of apartheid and laying the groundwork for a democratic country.
“We trust that this award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty,” the foundation said.
In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”
The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel’s guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.
President Obama says Kanye West is a jackass
The controversy involving Kanye West’s and Taylor Swift’s incident at the MTV Video Music Awards has penetrated the walls of the White House.
During an interview with CNBC, President Barack Obama called Kanye a “jackass” when asked about his thoughts on the ingredient.
He said “I thought that was really inappropriate. He’s a jackass.”
Although I agree Kanye was a “jackass” for rudely interrupting Taylor Swift’s speech, I was surprised the president of the United States weighed in on this issue.
Since he’s juggling health care, fixing our terrible economy and managing a war overseas, who knew he had time to fit the Taylor Swift and Kanye West discussion into his busy schedule.
In Obama’s defense, he made the comment BEFORE the interview actually began, and he was unaware that it was going to be recorded. He assumed it was off-the-record.
TMZ obtained a leaked version of the audiotape, and the off-the-record transcript is posted below.
Interviewer: Were your girls as hacked off as mine were that Kanye gave Taylor Swift the Joe Wilson treatment?
Obama: “I thought that was really inappropriate. You know it was like she’s getting an award. Why are you butting in? I hear you. I agree with you.”
Interviewer: So does that count as the first question?
Obama: “The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She’s getting her award. What’s he doing up there? He’s a jackass. No, now this… all this stuff, I’m assuming all this stuff. Where’s the pool? Come on guys. Cut the president some slack. I got a lot of other stuff on my plate. Yeah. Cause I remember last time it was the fly thing.”
Interviewer: No that worked out well for you. You were a ninja.
Obama: Except PETA.
Ted Kennedy dies at age 77
Sen. Edward Kenneday (aka Ted Kennedy) died Tuesday night after a battle witih brain cancer. He was 77 years old. The Associated Press story is posted below via NewsOK.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in a political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a year-long struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.
In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy served alongside 10 presidents – his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy among them – compiling an impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more.
His only run for the White House ended in defeat in 1980. More than a quarter-century later, he handed then-Sen. Barack Obama an endorsement at a critical point in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, explicitly likening the young contender to President Kennedy.
To the American public, Kennedy was best known as the last surviving son of America’s most glamorous political family, father figure and, memorably, eulogist of an Irish-American clan plagued again and again by tragedy.
Kennedy’s death triggered an outpouring of superlatives, from Democrats and Republicans as well as foreign leaders.
“An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States senator of our time,” Obama said in a written statement.
“For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts,” said Obama, vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast.
Kennedy’s family announced his death in a brief statement released early Wednesday.
“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” the statement said. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all.”
A few hours later, two vans left the family compound at Hyannis Port in pre-dawn darkness. Both bore hearse license plates – with the word “hearse” blacked out.
There was no immediate word on funeral arrangements. Two of Kennedy’s brothers, John and Robert, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada issued a statement that said, “It was the thrill of my lifetime to work with Ted Kennedy�..The liberal lion’s mighty roar may now fall silent, but his dream shall never die.”
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan said that her husband and Kennedy “could always find common ground, and they had great respect for one another.”
Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962, taking the seat that his brother John had occupied before winning the White House, and served longer than all but two senators in history.
His own hopes of reaching the White House were damaged – perhaps doomed – in 1969 by the scandal that came to be known as Chappaquiddick, an auto accident that left a young woman dead.
He sought the White House more than a decade later, lost the Democratic nomination to President Jimmy Carter, and bowed out with a stirring valedictory that echoed across the decades: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”
Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor in May 2008 and underwent surgery and a grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.
He made a surprise return to the Capitol last summer to cast the decisive vote for the Democrats on Medicare. He made sure he was there again last January to see his former Senate colleague Barack Obama sworn in as the nation’s first black president, but suffered a seizure at a celebratory luncheon afterward.
He also made a surprise and forceful appearance at last summer’s Democratic National Convention, where he spoke of his own illness and said health care was the cause of his life. His death occurred precisely one year later, almost to the hour.
He was away from the Senate for much of this year, leaving Republicans and Democrats to speculate about the impact what his absence meant for the fate of Obama’s health care proposals.
Under state law, Kennedy’s successor will be chosen by special election. In his last known public act, the senator urged state officials to give Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick the power to name an interim replacement. But that appears unlikely, leaving Democrats in Washington with one less vote for the next several months as they struggle to pass Obama’s health care legislation.
His death came less than two weeks after that of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver on Aug. 11. Kennedy was not present for the funeral, an indication of the precariousness of his own health.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy’s son Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., said his father had defied the predictions of doctors by surviving more than a year with his fight against brain cancer.
The younger Kennedy said that gave family members a surprise blessing, as they were able to spend more time with the senator and to tell him how much he had meant to their lives.
“There are very few people who have touched the life of this nation in the same breadth and the same order of magnitude,” Obama said in April as he signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law.
Kennedy arrived at his place in the Senate after a string of family tragedies. He was the only one of the four Kennedy brothers to die of natural causes.
Kennedy’s eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a plane crash in World War II. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in Los Angeles as he campaigned for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination. Years later, in 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash at age 38 along with his wife.
It fell to Ted Kennedy to deliver the eulogies, to comfort his brothers’ widows, to mentor fatherless nieces and nephews. It was Ted Kennedy who walked JFK’s daughter, Caroline, down the aisle at her wedding.
Tragedy had a way of bringing out his eloquence.
Kennedy sketched a dream of a better future as he laid to rest his brother Robert in 1968: “My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”
After John Jr.’s death, the senator said: “We dared to think, in that other Irish phrase, that this John Kennedy would live to comb gray hair, with his beloved Carolyn by his side. But like his father, he had every gift but length of years.”
His own legacy was blighted on the night of July 18, 1969, when Kennedy drove his car off a bridge and into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, on Martha’s Vineyard. Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old worker with RFK’s campaign, was found dead in the submerged car’s back seat 10 hours later.
Kennedy, then 37, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a two-month suspended sentence and a year’s probation. A judge eventually determined there was “probable cause to believe that Kennedy operated his motor vehicle negligently � and that such operation appears to have contributed to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.”
At the height of the scandal, Kennedy went on national television to explain himself in an extraordinary 13-minute address in which he denied driving drunk and rejected rumors of “immoral conduct” with Ms. Kopechne.
He said he was haunted by “irrational” thoughts immediately after the accident, and wondered “whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys.” He said his failure to report the accident right away was “indefensible.”
After Chappaquiddick especially, Kennedy gained a reputation as a heavy drinker and a womanizer, a tragically flawed figure haunted by the fear that he did not quite measure up to his brothers. As his weight ballooned, he was lampooned by comics and cartoonists in the 1980s and ’90s as the very embodiment of government waste, bloat and decadence.
But in his later years, after he had remarried, he came to be regarded as a statesman on Capitol Hill, seen as one of the most effective, hardworking lawmakers Washington has ever seen.
A barrel-chested figure with a swath of white hair, a booming voice and a thick, widely imitated Boston accent, he coupled fist-pumping floor speeches with his well-honed Irish charm and formidable negotiating skills. He was both a passionate liberal and a clear-eyed pragmatist, willing to reach across the aisle to get things done.
Kennedy’s speech in accepting defeat to Carter electrified the Democratic convention and turned out to be a defining moment. At 48, he seemed liberated from the towering expectations and high hopes invested in him after the death of his brothers, and he plunged into his work in the Senate.
First elected to the Senate in 1962 to his brother John’s seat, easily re-elected in 2006, Kennedy served close to 47 years, longer than all but two senators in history: Robert Byrd of West Virginia (50 years and counting) and the late Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who died after a tenure of nearly 47 1 / 2 years. Kennedy’s career spanned 10 presidencies.
His legislative achievements included bills to provide health insurance for children of the working poor, the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, Meals on Wheels for the elderly, abortion clinic access, family leave, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
He was also a key negotiator on legislation creating a Medicare prescription drug benefit for senior citizens and was a driving force for peace in Ireland and a persistent critic of the war in Iraq.
Kennedy did not always prevail. In late 2008, he unsuccessfully lobbied for niece Caroline’s appointment to the Senate from New York. New York Gov. David Paterson chose then-Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand instead.
Wildly popular among Democrats, Kennedy routinely won re-election by large margins. He grew comfortable in his role as Republican foil and leader of his party’s liberal wing.
President George W. Bush welcomed Kennedy to the Rose Garden on several occasions as he signed bills that the Democrat helped write.
“He’s the kind of person who will state his case, sometimes quite eloquently and vociferously, and then on another issue will come along and you can work with him,” Bush said shortly before his first term began in 2001.
But Bush was also the target of some of Kennedy’s sharpest attacks. Kennedy assailed the Iraq war as Bush’s Vietnam, a conflict “made up in Texas” and marketed by the Bush administration for political gain.
Kennedy and his niece Caroline shook up the Democratic establishment in January 2008 when they endorsed Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination for president.
After Obama won in November, Kennedy renewed words once spoken by his brother John, declaring: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do. � It is time for a new generation of leadership.”
Born in 1932, the youngest of Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s nine children, Edward Moore Kennedy was part of a family bristling with political ambition, beginning with maternal grandfather John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, a congressman and mayor of Boston.
Round-cheeked Teddy was thrown out of Harvard in 1951 for cheating, after arranging for a classmate to take a freshman Spanish exam for him. He eventually returned, earning his degree in 1956.
He went on to the University of Virginia Law School, and in 1962, while his brother John was president, announced plans to run for the Senate seat JFK had vacated in 1960. A family friend had held the seat in the interim because Kennedy was not yet 30, the minimum age for a senator.
Kennedy was immediately involved in a bruising primary campaign against state Attorney General Edward J. McCormack, a nephew of U.S. House Speaker John W. McCormack.
“If your name was simply Edward Moore, your candidacy would be a joke,” chided McCormack.
Kennedy won the primary by 300,000 votes and went on to overwhelmingly defeat Republican George Cabot Lodge, son of the late Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, in the general election.
Devastated by his brothers’ assassinations and injured in a 1964 plane crash that left him with back pain that would plague him for decades, Kennedy temporarily withdrew from public life in 1968. But he re-emerged in 1969 to be elected majority whip of the Senate.
Then came Chappaquiddick.
Kennedy still handily won re-election in 1970, but he lost his leadership job. He remained outspoken in his opposition to the Vietnam War and support of social programs but ruled out a 1976 presidential bid.
In the summer of 1978, a Gallup Poll showed that Democrats preferred Kennedy over President Carter 54 percent to 32 percent. A year later, Kennedy decided to run for the White House with a campaign that accused Carter of turning his back on the Democratic agenda.
The difficult task of dislodging a sitting president was compounded by Kennedy’s fumbling answer to a question posed by CBS’ Roger Mudd: Why do you want to be president?
“Well, it’s um, you know you have to come to grips with the different issues that, ah, we’re facing,” Kennedy said. “I mean, we can, we have to deal with each of the various questions of the economy, whether it’s in the area of energy �”
He bowed out of the race after getting roundly beaten by Carter in the primaries and losing a rules battle at the Democratic convention. Later, when asked to assess the campaign, he replied: “Well, I learned to lose, and for a Kennedy that’s hard.”
Kennedy married Virginia Joan Bennett, known as Joan, in 1958. They divorced in 1982. In 1992, he married Washington lawyer Victoria Reggie. His survivors include a daughter, Kara Kennedy Allen; two sons, Edward Jr. and Patrick, a congressman from Rhode Island; and two stepchildren, Caroline and Curran Raclin.
In 1991, Kennedy roused his nephew William Kennedy Smith and his son Patrick from bed to go out for drinks while staying at the family’s Palm Beach, Fla., estate. Later that night, a woman Smith met at a bar accused him of raping her at the home.
Smith was acquitted, but the senator’s carousing – and testimony about him wandering about the house in his shirttails and no pants – further damaged his reputation.
Kennedy offered a mea culpa in a speech at Harvard that October, recognizing “my own shortcomings, the faults in the conduct of my private life.”
Later on, his second wife appeared to have a calming influence on him, helping him rehabilitate his image.
Kennedy’s family life has been marked by illness.
Edward Jr. lost a leg to bone cancer in 1973 at age 12. Kara had a cancerous tumor removed from her lung in 2003. In 1988, Patrick had a noncancerous tumor pressing on his spine removed. He has also struggled with depression and addiction and announced in June that he was re-entering rehab.
Kennedy’s memoir, “True Compass,” is set to be published in the fall.
Obama family tours national parks
The Obama family took a tour of the national parks during the past week, including Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park.
A photo gallery is posted below. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
Obama protester rips up Rosa Parks poster
Rosa Parks was arrested in 1956 after refusing to sit in the back of the bus during the segregation era. Her actions helped initiate the Civil Rights Movement. (AP photo)
I support free speech. It’s one of the greatest freedoms we have in this country.
Many protesters who oppose President Obama’s health care plan have been heckling members of Congress during their town hall meetings.
If you don’t like the president’s health care plan, that’s fine. I support your right to protest.
But when you disrespect Rosa Parks, the mother of the Civil Rights Movement, that’s where I draw the line.
According to Politico, during a health care town hall meeting hosted by Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri, a few women were holding posters of Rosa Parks. Then, the crowd began booing them.
When one woman unrolled her poster, an angry man went up to her, grabbed the poster and tore it up.
When the woman tried to get her poster back from the protester, she along with the protester were escorted out of the building.
Freedom of speech goes both ways. The protester had the right to be angry and vocal about his irritation with President Obama’s health care plan.
But the Obama supporter also had the right to hold a Rosa Parks poster if she wanted to without having it ripped up.
A video clip of the incident is posted below.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dances with his mother-in-law Eunice Kennedy Shriver after giving his acceptance speech. (AP photo)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver is dead at age 88. She is the sister of former President John F. Kennedy, the mother of Maria Shriver and the mother-in-law of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
She is best known for creating the Special Olympics, which allows people with disabilities to compete in athletic events.
The full Associated Press story is posted below via NewsOK.com. Click here to view/sign the guestbook.
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
President John F. Kennedy’s sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who carried on the family’s public service tradition by founding the Special Olympics and championing the rights of the mentally disabled, died Tuesday morning, her family said in a statement. She was 88.
Shriver had suffered a series of strokes in recent years and died at 2 a.m. at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis. The hospital is near the Kennedy family compound, where her sole surviving brother, Sen. Edward Kennedy, has been battling a brain tumor.
As celebrity, social worker and activist, Shriver was credited with transforming America’s view of the mentally disabled from institutionalized patients to friends, neighbors and athletes. Her efforts were inspired in part by the struggles of her mentally disabled sister, Rosemary.
Peter Collier, author of “The Kennedys, an American Drama,” called Eunice Shriver the “moral force” of the Kennedy family.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver is shown swimming with children in a pool at the day camp for mentally challenged children in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. (AP photo)
Shriver was also the sister of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, the wife of 1972 vice presidential candidate and former Peace Corps director R. Sargent Shriver, and the mother-in-law of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. With Eunice Shriver’s death, Jean Kennedy Smith becomes the last surviving Kennedy daughter.
A 1960 Chicago Tribune profile of the women in then-candidate JFK’s family said Shriver was “generally credited with being the most intellectual and politically minded of all the Kennedy women.”
When her brother was in the White House, she pressed for efforts to help troubled young people and the mentally disabled. And in 1968, she started what would become the world’s largest athletic competition for mentally disabled children and adults. Now, more than 1 million athletes in more than 160 countries participate in Special Olympics meets each year.
“When the full judgment on the Kennedy legacy is made – including JFK’s Peace Corps and Alliance for Progress, Robert Kennedy’s passion for civil rights and Ted Kennedy’s efforts on health care, work place reform and refugees – the changes wrought by Eunice Shriver may well be seen as the most consequential,” Harrison Rainie, author of “Growing Up Kennedy,” wrote in U.S. News & World Report in 1993.
Click here to view/sign the guestbook.
Sargent Shriver and his wife Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968. (AP photo)
Sarah Palin to resign as Alaska governor
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin announced today she is resigning as governor of Alaska.
Palin made the announcement during a press conference in Wasilla, Alaska. She said “We know we can affect positive change outside government at this point in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities.”
“Many just accept that lame duck status and they hit the road. They draw a paycheck and they kind of milk it. I’m not going to put Alaskans through that. I promised efficiencies and effectiveness.”
Palin said she will resign in three weeks, a year-and-a-half before her term ends. Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell will take her place July 26.
Although no one really no the true reason why she’s quitting, but I’m sure we will find out soon. Palin made history last year when she became the second female vice presidential candidate in history.
Suze Orman says former President Bush owes America
Millions of Americans have been negatively affected by the crumbling economy, while former President George W. Bush still maintains his fortune.
What’s wrong with this picture? Many Americans blame the former president for the horrible economy because as America’s leader, his job was to leave Americans with a prosperous economy.
Instead, he left us with a hellhole.
In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, CNBC financial hostess Suze Orman has some harsh words for Bush.
She said, Commander in Chief? You blew up every single financial vessel we had and if you think you aren’t personally responsible, well, the blame starts at the top. There is no higher top than you, SIR! If I were you, I would feel so absolutely horrific that I would take every penny I had and distribute it to anybody and everybody to help them in whatever way I could. You owe the American people every penny of your fortune and your family’s fortune.
I think Orman’s words were very well put. I’m not sure what Bush was doing during those eight years in the White House, but I know he wasn’t keeping an eye on the economy.
If I were him, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
Tim Henley
President Obama apologized for comments about Special Olympics
President Barack Obama was a guest March 19 on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno. (AP photo)
President Barack Obama issued an apology in reference to a comment he made about the Special Olympics while appearing on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.
During his appearance on the show March 19, the president was talking about how terrible his bowling skills are. He compared his bowling skills to the athlete’s skills in the Special Olympics. (Which is for athletes who have disabilities).
After realizing what he did, the president called Special Olympics chairman Tim Shriver to apologize.
On “Good Morning America,” Shriver said the president “expressed his disappointment and he apologized in a way that was very moving. He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population.”
”I think it’s important to see that words hurt and words do matter. And these words that in some respect can be seem as humiliating or a put down to people with special needs do cause pain and they do result in stereotypes.”
Shriver also said the president expressed interest in inviting some of the Special Olympics athletes to the White House to play basketball or to bowl.
He insults them then he invites them to the White House. Is that how he operates now?
On a serious note, I believe the president is genuinely sorry for his remarks. He was talking with Jay Leno, so he was probably just trying to be funny, which is okay.
But next time he should be funny by making jokes about Republicans or his other political rivals, and he should leave the Special Olympics alone.
Tim Henley
President Obama is more popular than Jesus Christ
President Barack Obama is more popular than our savior Jesus Christ.
According to a new Harris Poll released this week, Americans named President Obama as their number one hero. Jesus Christ came in second place and Martin Luther King Jr. placed third.
Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy and Mother Teresa also made the list.
Although I think President Obama is a good guy, there’s no way I would rank him ahead of Jesus if I was participating in this poll.
Considering the fact that Jesus is God’s right-hand man, and he probably will help determine whether I go to heaven or hell, I think it’s safe to say that my vote will go to Jesus on this one.
Tim Henley
President Obama discusses A-Rod scandal
Baseball star Alex Rodriguez aka A-Rod recently admitted he used to take steroids.
During President Obama’s televised news conference at the White House, a reporter asked Obama what he thought about the A-Rod scandal and he replied,
“I think it’s depressing news on top of what’s been a flurry of depressing items when it comes to major league baseball. And if you’re a fan of major league baseball, I think it tarnishes an entire era, to some degree. And it’s unfortunate, because I think there are a lot of ballplayers who played it straight.”
“What I’m pleased about is major league baseball seems to finally be taking this seriously, to recognize how big a problem this is for the sport, and that our kids hopefully are watching and saying, ‘You know what? There are no short cuts, that when you try to take short cuts, you may end up tarnishing your entire career, and that your integrity’s not worth it. That’s the message I hope is communicated.”
I think it’s okay if President Obama has an opinion about A-Rod and steroid use, but I don’t think this press conference was the appropriate place to discuss this topic.
The reporter never should have asked this question. We are stuck in a war in Iraq that keeps dragging on, we have the worst economy since the Great Depression and workers are getting laid off left and right.
I prefer my president focus on these important issues instead of discussing A-Rod. Let the Major League Baseball organization be concerned about A-Rod.
Tim Henley
Val Kilmer considers running for governor
Val Kilmer is considering running for governor of New Mexico.
The actor told the Associated Press that he might run for the seat in 2010 when Bill Richardson’s term concludes.
He hasn’t made his final decision, but he said he wants to be more “contributive” and that’s why he’s considering the run.
Usually I would say someone like him doesn’t have a chance of becoming governor of a state.
However, if Arnold Schwarzenegger can become a governor then I guess ANYBODY can become a governor.
Tim Henley
Tom Daschle withdraws from cabinet nomation
Tom Daschle is no longer a prospect for President Barack Obama’s cabinet post.
Daschle withdrew his name from the nomination for secretary of health and human services.
Daschle was under fire for failing to pay $128,000 in back taxes. (He claims it was an innocent mistake).
This is the second time one of Obama’s cabinet nominees has faced tax trouble. Timothy Geithner was scrutinized when he failed to pay $26,000 in back social security and Medicare taxes.
The Senate confirmed Geithner anyway as treasury secretary last month.
If I can afford to pay my taxes on my minimum wage salary, then why is it so hard for wealthy people to pay their taxes?
Obama should do a better job investigating his cabinet nominees.
As president of the United States, it shouldn’t be difficult for him to pick up the phone and ask an IRS agent which nominee has paid their taxes and which haven’t.
Tim Henley
Does George W. Bush care about black people?
Does former President Bush care about black people? His former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that he does.
After seeing the thousands of mostly black New Orleans residents stranded for days following Hurricane Katrina and the government doing nothing to help, hip hop star Kanye West famously said “GEORGE BUSH DOESN’T CAREY ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE” during a live televised fundraising event.
West’s comments were repeatedly aired on nearly every newscast in the country, which helped open up a dialogue about race.
During a recent appearance on ABC’s “The View,” Condoleezza Rice told the ladies it makes her angry when people make those comments about the president.
Watch the short clip below.
Notice how she still didn’t answer the question of why the lower income families are still living in those trailers even to this day.
She sounds more angry about the comments that people make toward Bush than she is about the fiasco of the failed rescue efforts.
Tim Henley
Caroline Kennedy will no longer seek Senate seat
It looks like there won’t be any more Kennedy’s in the Senate this year.
Caroline Kennedy withdrew her name from consideration in replacing Hilary Clinton’s Senate spot.
Kennedy released a statement that said “I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate,”
Gov. Paterson is expected to make his selection by Saturday. Clinton resigned from her Senate seat Jan. 21 after she was confirmed for the position of secretary of state.
President Bush says the government responded quickly during Hurricane Katrina
I typically don’t discuss politics on this Celebrity Blog. However, President Bush is technically a celebrity, and I think its worthy to include him in a blog.
During his final press conference this week, reporters asked President Bush about the government’s slow response during Hurricane Katrina. The president became irritated and said the government acted quickly during the Katrina aftermath.
CNN anchor Campbell Brown took issue with the president’s comments that the government responded quickly. We all remember those images of thousands of New Orleans residents who were stranded and begging for help for several days.
President Bush’s comments just further reinforces that he is out of touch with reality, and he constantly lives in a state of denial.
Listen to Campbell Brown’s commentary below. She took the words right out of my mouth.
Tim Henley
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a>
